Beginning
by Andrea-Pink-32
Summary: His cup of cooling coffee sat beside him and his runners were still on his feet, he had just got back from a run when his thoughts had wandered to Meg and Hannah. How were they? Were they okay in Canada? Would Meg answer the phone if he called? Would Hannah make new friends and learn to live without her father and her sister?


**Note:** I can't think of a title so for now I am going to leave it as Untitled. I have only seen the first episode of the second season and what isn't in the show is my own headcanon.

 **Siân Owens:**

Swansea was only two hours away by car and yet she hadn't been home in months.

She wasn't brought up to ignore her family but she had a good job now, it was stable and she was in it for the long run, unlike her time spent in Cardiff.

She had been home every chance she got back then, but things were different now.

New town, and a new job with new bosses and colleagues.

It wasn't something she could play around with; especially if she wanted to move up to Detective Inspector.

She was still new having only been here in Aberystwyth almost a year, she was still new to the eyes of the people who lived here and to her colleagues.

She still had to be the perfect officer and that meant not taking holidays or time out to see her family.

Her family would understand.

Siân was going to do better here in Aberystwyth then she had in Cardiff and Swansea.

She knew she couldn't have another strike in her file because then she knew her career  
would be over.

She was only 31 but she felt like that if she screwed up her position and job here in  
Aberystwyth then she'd never amount to anything in the force.

She'd have to return to mummy, and be reduced to working in the bakery that her  
mum managed.

She wasn't having that!

She may like to do things a little different and sometimes she lacked the sensitivity that a police officer needs.

At times.

Sure she had a one track mind that got her into trouble more often than not; but she wasn't running home with her tail between her legs.

Sian is tough and would hold out and make it.

She was going to do good here in Aberystwyth, and she was going to rise in the ranks.

She knew her dad hadn't been happy when she had been transferred from the Police force in Cardiff but it was either 18 months' probation or transfer out.

She had taken the out and hoped to start clean.

She had got an innocent man to confess when she shouldn't have been interviewing him in the first place, so after everything was dealt with and he had sued South Wales Police, the station and she had been punished.

But Aberystwyth was her second chance.

She knew working with colleagues like Mared, Tom and Lloyd that things would work out; Tom Mathias and Mared Rhys would make sure she never made an innocent man confess again and she would keep her file clear of anymore strikes.

One day and she would be Detective Inspector Siân Owens.

One day.

She would make up for what happened in Cardiff and show it to her dad and everyone else that she had learned from her mistakes.

 **Lloyd Elis:**

At only 27 he was young, but not the youngest in the Aberystwyth police station, no that honour belonged to a fresh-faced probationer from Cardigan.

But he was still one of the youngest here.

He worked closely with Siân who wasn't much older than him but he still knew he had to prove that he could do this job.

Lloyd grew up on a farm here in Aberystwyth, the son of a farmer and his Grandad had been a farmer as well. His da had been shocked to say the least when he told him he wasn't going into the family business.

"Da I'm going to be a police officer, I don't want to run the farm. I don't want to be a  
farmer for the rest of my life. You and mam you always told me I could be anything I  
wanted when I was young. This is what I want, da."

He had been eighteen when he told his da that.

He can remember the crestfallen face of his father and that it was the look that haunted him. And for a long time it made him think following his dream wasn't the right thing to do.

Back then he wondered if he thought he should have just been happy as a farmer, found a wife and passed on the farm like his da and his Grandad had done before him.

Perhaps it was foolish to have a dream of his own.

It was his Grandad who had set him right.

He told Lloyd that he hadn't had a choice but to be a farmer.

It was the only thing he could do after the War was over and he returned to a very different Cardiff from the one then when he had left.

Cardiff had been blitzed in 1941 and it wasn't until 1944 that the bombs finally stopped falling but the destroyed city held nothing for him anymore.

He had left the ruined city and went looking for work, finding odd jobs as a  
handyman in many places until finally he found some land in Aberystwyth.

With the money he had saved up he bought it and started his own farm.

It was in 1952 that he married a sweet girl name Catrin that was in the school of Art at Aberystwyth University.

They had 5 children and their oldest would get the farm when he was old enough.

Lloyd knew that as his dads' only child he was expected to inherit the farm eventually.

His Grandad had started it, so he should be only too happy to take over.

But his Grandad told him and his dad that Lloyd had the choice, and if he wanted to do good for the people in the ways of by a becoming Police officer then he should;  
Aberystwyth had more than enough farmers - that one less wouldn't cause it any harm.

So, after almost 10 years Lloyd was still living in Aberystwyth and working for her Police force.

He was happy and he wouldn't change anything.

He got on well with his da who declared that he was proud to see his boy helping people and solving crimes.

"I never was half as smart as you. You got the brains from your mam you did. My boy a copper, you still can't find yourself a girl to bring home but I'm sure it'll happen soon. I think your mam wants some wyrion," he'd say happily around the dinner table when Lloyd went home for Sunday dinner, or on any other occasion he visited his family home.

Lloyd would blush and his mam would swat at his da's arm telling him to be quiet and leave Lloyd alone; she'd get grandchildren when the time was right.

He knew he was the son of a farmer and the ŵyr [grandson] of a farmer but he was proud to be a Cop working in his home town.

He got to see his family when he wanted and he made sure to keep on the good side of Chief Superintendent Prosser.

He knew he still had a lot of learning to do, and yes, ok, maybe he was thinking about finding a woman he could marry and have kids with, but that wouldn't be for  
at least a few more years.

At least.

He wanted to get a good career and make a difference before he settled down.

One day he'd be part of his own proper Welsh family, - three kids, a wife and acres of  
wide open land that included the farm which was his heritage - that went on for kilometers and farm land as far as the eye could see.

Lloyd knew if he kept at it and kept a level head he could one day become Detective  
Chief Inspector Lloyd Elis.

 **Mared Rhys:**

"Mared you should get going its late."

She lifted her head, wincing as her neck popped.

Her shoulders cracked as she lifted them stretching slightly, still sitting in her seat.

"Pick this up tomorrow, yeah?"

Rubbing her eyes she looked around the room.

Lloyd and Siân were gone and it was just her, Tom and the cold coffee mugs in the room, the only light from computer screens and the overhead lights lefts on so they could read.

"You leaving too, Tom?" she asked, standing and closing a file.

She'd been reading these files for hours and facts were becoming jumbled together.

She did need a break.

"When did Lloyd and Siân leave?" she asked.

She asked covering her mouth as she yawned and then raised her arms above her head and stretched again, she was stiff and sore from sitting hunched over for hours.

"An hour ago. You were nose deep in the Hughes's files; they said bye and you more or less grunted a good bye. Good read then?"

He gave her a tired half smile as he, then downed his cold coffee grimacing and shuddering before slamming the mug onto the desk top.

His eyes shut and there was a look of pure disgust on his face.

"Yuck, that'll wake you up and keep you going for a good hour or so at least."

He said, standing and grabbing his keys that he had tossed away hours ago, away from him and he held them grabbing his used coffee mug and as he moved it to the a side desk; for it to get moved and washed and if it was still sitting there when he came back in he'd wash it himself.

Mared laughed.

She pulled out her mobile phone from her pocket to check it, seeing she'd have to charge it when she got home and respond to a few emails but the emails were nothing that couldn't wait till tomorrow.

"Come on, I'll walk you to your car."

Looking at him her brow raised as he shrugged and yawned.

"I'm not in a hurry I've got this cold coffee buzz to burn off the extra walk will do me good."

She nodded before shaking her head fondly.

"Don't worry you'll get used to the coffee soon enough or you'll be smart enough to bring your own like I do."

She smiled, walking from the room.

Tom turned off the lights behind him as he shut the door.

"I'll keep that in mind because that damn machine down the hall doesn't like me."

"It's all in the technique, remember? You have to be gentle with it!"

She laughed at her vision of him trying to sweet talk the coffee machine; yeah,  
she really needed sleep if she was having those thoughts.

She doesn't remember the walk to the car, but all of a sudden she's saying goodbye  
and good night, and driving away while he walked back to where he parked.

He had told her to get some sleep and she's going to listen to him.

It took just minutes to get home and when she does she knows her daughter is  
sleeping, the kitchen light and the porch light are the only ones on.

Closing the door behind her and locking it she hangs her purse on the hook beside the door and puts her keys in the front pouch of her purse and walks into the kitchen to see a history book sitting on the kitchen table, with a half empty glass of milk beside it, open to a chapter about the Romans.

Slipping a piece of paper into the book she closes it and dumps out the milk  
before rinsing the glass before leaving it to sit in the sink.

She turns off the kitchen light before making her way upstairs to check on her daughter who she can hear snoring through her bedroom door.

She already made sure the front door was locked and she feels alright going to her own room for bed now, kicking the bedroom door closed with the heel of her shoes.

She remembers to charge her cell or work or her colleagues won't be able to contact her in the morning.

Plugging in the phone, she heard the noise alert her that it was charging before toeing off her shoes and dropping face first onto her bed.

She made no effort to strip off her jeans, or change into night clothes, and she was asleep before the light on the phone even turned off.

 **Tom Mathias:**

Sitting on the steps of his home, a caravan overlooking Cardigan Bay, Tom Mathias slipped on his wedding ring and looked at his hand.

The tan line on his finger was almost gone and soon you wouldn't know by seeing his hand that he had once been married, the skin on his finger almost looking the same as every other finger.

It looked strange to see a ring on his finger again, he had grown used to it not being there; he wondered how long it took had taken Meg to get rid of the tan line.

The smell of the sea, and the crisp cool air and mixed with the smell of freshly washed laundry all about; he had washed some of his clothes that day and hung them up on the line that he had attached strung from an edge of the caravan and strung it across to the old stone wall of the shell of the cottage behind and to the side of his that his caravan sat beside.

His cup of cooling coffee sat beside him and his runners were still on his feet, he had  
just got back from a run when his thoughts had wandered to Meg and Hannah.

How were they? Were they okay in Canada? Would Meg answer the phone if he called?

Would Hannah make new friends and learn to live without her father and her sister?

He didn't know the answers to any of the questions banging about in his head but he wished he did, or at least that they would quiet down and so he could think about other things for a few minutes.

He knew he would have to get over them soon if he wanted to keep his job.

He wasn't going to slip back into the depressive state he had been in months before;

He wouldn't allow himself to become as distraught as Mari Davies had been when he tried to talk her out of walking off the edge of a cliff.

He had failed and she had died.

It was another mistake in a long list of mistakes, and he nearly lost his job for it.

He had already lost his family and he knew if he lost his job he had nothing.

He didn't know where to go or how to go on if he did without it to define and anchor him.

He was DCI Tom Mathias, he had been in the London Met for 10 ten years, and he had seen all kinds of hell and helped many people over those 10 years.

He regrets a lot of things in his life that he truly had no control over, like the deaths of Gwen Thomas and Mari Davies, the death of his own daughter and the way his marriage fell apart.

Tom had come to Aberystwyth for a fresh start but Gwen Thomas was murdered, Mari Davies jumped off a cliff, Meg showed up and he feels like he's spiralling down into a black pit again.

He hadn't told anyone but Prosser that he held a gun to his head in John Bell's home and that alone could have cost him his job.

Hell, the gun could have cost him his _life_.

He had to move on, he could stay here in Aberystwyth but he had to let things go or he was going to hold a gun to his head again.

Next time the chamber might not be empty.

He was sure there would be a next time and if he tried to push fate once more he'd probably lose.

He had never been lucky and he knew it.

Getting up, he walked to the cliff's edge and looked down to see the waves crashing against the rock, rocks like the ones that stole Mari Davies life, and he took off his wedding ring and placed it in his palm.

The tiny gold band felt hot in his hand.

He picked it up and gave it one last look before throwing it as far as he could.

He tried to watch its progress as it fell into the vast sea below.

It quickly fell from human sight, and he didn't know precisely when it broke the surface but he somehow knew when it sank into the wild depths of the sea.

Maybe a dolphin would find it and carry it away.

This was going to be his new start, right here on this cliff.

He would better himself, he would take things in strides, and he wouldn't let his thoughts of Meg, Hannah, Gwen Thomas, Mari Davies or his dead daughter overwhelm him; he was DCI Tom Mathias and he wouldn't lose his job or his life.

He would live with the pain.

It made him a better officer and a better man.


End file.
